How Digital Transformation will impact the Hospitality Industry in 2020?

Already valued at $1.2 trillion, the tourism and hospitality industry is poised to grow even further as the years’ pass. And like all industries, the digital transformation of hospitality has left an indelible mark across all forms of tourism.

Gone are the days when one had to physically approach a travel agent and wait till he made the bookings — now it all happens online, and at a very fast pace. Travelers are picky about where they will travel and when; the digital transformation of hospitality not only allowed for this to happen but is also ensuring its sustenance.

By 2020 the world of hospitality might look somewhat different than it does today! Let us make some estimates as to how:

1. Remote Access Will Improve – We are already living in an era where we can open our hotel rooms from outside and can order room service without having to get out of bed. This scenario will surely change to some extent if the Internet of Things (IoT) gets integrated with the internal circuitry of a room, among other things.

So we may expect our room to be heated or cooled to just the perfect temperature at which we prefer them, even before we have entered it! The devices that can make this happen have already been created, one example is the Nest thermostat.

2. Data Science Will Serve More Purposes – Used in fields as diverse as tax fraud and weather forecasting, data science is sure to be a bigger part of the hospitality industry by 2020. We might find that we get personalized messages from hotels we are likely to choose – offering us discount coupons as well! – because of extremely accurate predictive modeling. This can radically change the customer satisfaction as well as the user experience of travelers around the world.

3. AI Bots Will Become More Important! – A reality in certain hotel chains already, AI chatbots for hospitality are more likely to play an important role in the coming years to do clerical work like changing or canceling reservations, verifying discount coupons, checking account balances, and more.

There might even be actual robots who play the role of concierge, giving detailed information where it is pertinent, ensuring that your room is clean, that your stay at the hotel is smooth and more. In Japan, the Henn na (or Weird) Hotel already has a robot concierges – and one of these robots is a dinosaur!

These are some of the ways in which digital transformation might end up impacting the hospitality industries in the years to come. The predictions made above might just hit the mark completely, seeing as how they’re already nascent realities.

But technology teaches us that there is even more to learn and to achieve than we may believe at a certain time. So let’s wait and see where exactly we will end up after the digital transformation of hospitality! One thing is for sure: it’s bound to get even more convenient!

We at Affle Enterprise have developed applications for enterprises, each built for a custom use case. Monitoring and witnessing the impact of their integration in real time.

1 Comment

Travel sites that allow consumers to both book and provide feedback on hotels also have a major impact on a hotel’s reputation and resulting success or failure. Therefore, Plenty of companies who have been improving its digital customer engagement and guest loyalty through digital transformation in 2018. Thank you for sharing insights rishabh,